800,00 FATHERLESS CHILDREN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14048, 19 July 1916, Page 3

800,00 FATHERLESS CHILDREN.

Eight hundred thousand French chil* dren have been. made fatherless by the war, according to a statement made by. Senator Jejievrier, m a debate m the Senate. This number exceeds by 10 per cent, the average age total births m France. Half the childhood of France, he estimates, will bejbrought up without a parental guide. The Government and the Senate are considering how they shall be cared for. A Bill prepared by the Government and somewhat modified by the. Public Instruction Committee of/ the Senate, declares m principle that the State shall assume the expenses of bringing up and educating every child whose father has either been killed or disabled by? tjie war. The "wards of the nation,'' they are tp be called, and special guardians) are to.be provided for them under the provision of the Bill under discussion. The special guardians are to be appointed by. committees m each department, under the general supervision of a central committee. A mother' who; accepts the/patronage of the State for her child or children must accept the. guardianship of a person outside her family. This provision has encountered the opposition of the, Conservative and Catholic. members of the Senate, who see iri it. a rupture of the "sacred union" of parties and a measure destined to a political end through the laical' education • of ,the children of Catholic parents. Under the law of separation of Church and State, the Government oould not give a child, religious instruction. 7 Moreover, it is pointed out, the child's bringing up under the patronage of the Senate would be largely supervised and controlled by the Prefects, who are the recdgnised political agents of the Government. The Conservatives demand for mothers the aid of the State/ and, at the same time, the_ right and the facilities for giving their children such rfeligious instruction as they see fit. Under the. present laws,, half-orphans would have no relief whatever, if the mother refused the conditions offered by the State, since pensions, are allowed to full orphans only. It has: been proposed to remedy this 'deficiency by a special law now under consideration m the Chamber of Deputies. If a compromise is not reached by the Senate during the war, it is--deemed certain that the contention will revive the struggle between the Catholics and the other elements of Parliament after hostilities have ceased.